Welp, Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) tried to change their Obamacare “repeal and replace” bill to appease those senators that opposed it…but it did not work.

Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) has come out and officially declared she would vote no on both versions of the bill.

Republicans fell into a panic when Sens. Rand Paul (R-KY) and John McCain (R-AZ) gave their definite nos on the bill, leaving the vote at 50-50.

Collins had always been leaning no, but with this statement, the bill is officially dead. From The New York Times:

“Health care is a deeply personal, complex issue that affects every single one of us and one-sixth of the American economy. Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame, especially when the actual bill is a moving target,” Ms. Collins said in the statement.

“Today, we find out that there is now a fourth version of the Graham-Cassidy proposal, which is as deeply flawed as the previous iterations,” she said. “The fact that a new version of this bill was released the very week we are supposed to vote compounds the problem.”

She added: “This is simply not the way that we should be approaching an important and complex issue that must be handled thoughtfully and fairly for all Americans.”

Paul spoke to reporters on Monday to announce that the revision did not win him over. From Talking Points Memo:

“If you’re going to say the whole country is short of money, which we are … everybody should get the same thing,” he told reporters Monday afternoon, ripping the last-second cash infusions Sens. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) have made for states like Kentucky and Alaska, home of Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), a key undecided vote. “No, it doesn’t seem right.”

Paul made it clear he’s still strongly opposed to the bill, both because of the process and the policy.

“I’m just not for a trillion-dollar grant program that keeps most of the Obamacare spending,” he said. “This is thrown together sort of in a slipshod way … A lot of this is about electoral politics.”

And he made it clear the basic structure of the bill is unacceptable to him.

“In my mind a compromise does not include block grants,” he said. “I just don’t think this is repeal. … I believe that it represents Republicans accepting a trillion dollars of Obamacare spending.”

Earlier today, Cassidy and Graham released a newer version of the bill that added more money to the states of those who either said no or leaned no: Arizona, Kentucky, Maine, and Alaska. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) wasn’t sold on the bill either, but she never said yes or no.

The Washington Postreported that Alaska would receive “3 percent more funding between 2020 and 2026 than under current law, and Maine would get 43 percent more funding during that time period.” CNBC discussed the changes to Arizona and Kentucky:

Arizona would gain $4.2 billion under the new draft calculations, roughly 14 percent, compared with a loss of $19 billion under the original plan. Maine stood to lose $2 billion between 2020-2027, but under the revised draft would gain nearly $1.5 billion. Kentucky would go from losing roughly $11 billion compared with Obamacare, to gaining $1.1 billion or 4 percent.

Collins appeared on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday morning and told host Jake Tapper that “[I]t’s very difficult for me to envision a scenario where I would end up voting for this bill.” She also said that she’s waiting for the CBO score to come out, which should happen today. Collins expressed concern for protections of those with pre-existing conditions and the costs of premiums and deductibles.

Trump should have done that months ago when the Congressional GOP made it as clear as they could that they were lying when they said they wanted to repeal Obamacare. That the 65 bills they sent to Obama were a series of frauds. Because they haven’t even sent Trump one. Trump highlighted that point on Friday in his campaign speech for Luther Strange.

This is going to sound cruel, but had he done so John “Build the Dang Fence, Leading the Charge to Repeal Obamacare” McCain probably wouldn’t still be in the Senate to block repeal. First of all, his wife hasn’t worked in the private sector for decades. Anheuser-Busch considers her an absentee owner of her distributorship and while she inherited majority control in 2000 she never got involved in the day-to-day operations of the company. In short, I don’t think McCain can get insurance through his wife’s company as Ted Cruz does through his wife’s employer Goldman-Sacchs. It’s possible that as titular chair of the corporate board she might be able to, and perhaps she does, but that would only be legal if the company offered insurance to all members of the corporate board. I know through personal experience that the owner/s of a company can’t give themselves special privileges vis a vis health insurance unless all employees have the same options.

If I’m correct, and I believe it’s extremely likely that I am, Cindy and any dependents are covered by McCain’s lavish Congressional insurance package. If he lost that they’d have three options. The Obamacare exchanges, Medicare, and Tricare. As a retired Navy Captain McCain would be eligible for Tricare. Either Tricare plus, which would get him treatment at military clinics and hospitals. This might not be a bad option as some of these hospitals are very good such as Balboa in San Diego. But they’re not the Mayo clinic. The Mayo clinic does accept Tricare for life, which provides for civilian-based care. But then Tricare for life ain’t the gold-plated Senatorial plan. There are limits and restrictions on what Tricare will pay for. Tricare won’t pay for treatments it considers ineffective. The type of cancer McCain has been diagnosed with is the most aggressive form of cancer that originates in the brain. And age is always associated with a worse prognosis. On average only three to five percent of all people diagnosed with glioblastoma live as long as three to five years. But then that depends on age. This cancer is most common in people over sixty, but in the rare cases that someone is diagnosed with it under age fifty with aggressive treatment there survival prognosis can be come comparable to healthy people in their same age group. On the other hand I haven’t been able to find any instances of people’s McCain’s age who lived three years. Typically people with this type of cancer live twelve to fifteen months even with the best treatment. I tried navigating the Tricare site to determine just what treatments they will pay for with this type of brain cancer for a man of eighty, and for how long, but it’s not easy to navigate and I doubt the information is posted on their website. McCain would have to go through a Tricare Primary Care Manager to get a referral, first to a military treatment facility, then from there to the Mayo Clinic. And as far as the various surgical, radiological, and chemical treatments Mayo might offer Tricare would determine on a case-by-case basis if they’ll pay for it. Definitely not as care free as McCain’s current “no questions asked” Senatorial insurance.

Also, minor point, Tricare for life actually means McCain would have only two choices as to be eligible you have to have Medicare parts A and B.

Of course, Cindy McCain is estimated to be worth $100M so she could afford to pay for anything insurance won’t cover.

If Trump rescinds the special carve out that wouldn’t necessarily force McCain onto the exchange. If it did in AZ that means McCain would have only one insurer to choose anywhere in the state. There are actually two insurers in AZ this year but the counties they cover are mutually exclusive. But it could force McCain out of the Senate as Trump would have just complicated his health care situation.

No one in the Republican Party is particularly upset about this. NONE of them want to repeal Obamacare anyway.

All of these GOP bait and switch Obamacare bills are designed to do the same thing, funnel an enormous amount of money into the healthcare insurance industry, until such time as it becomes impossible for the private insurance industry to make any money off of healthcare insurance. Then the federal government will step in and simply take over the healthcare insurance industry with a single payer, government funded insurer. In order for that to work, price controls and service restrictions will be imposed. That has always been the plan and both parties are in on it.

Graham-Cassidy would do two things. It would put the states in charge of both the medicaid programs and the exchanges, including making them responsible for preexisting conditions. This will allow Republican Congressmen to distance themselves from the inevitable healthcare insurance collapse, and claim that they did something prior to the 2018 midterm elections.

Meh. On the one hand this was not a free market, across state lines with less federal intervention insurance bill. On the other hand it would have gotten rid of the individual mandate and medical device tax. Are we any worse off because it didn’t pass? No. Would we be better off if it did pass? Probably not. Face it, nobody in Congress is interested in getting their hands out of the insurance companies pockets. We’re all eventually hosed and both parties are to blame.

It is incumbent upon Collins, McCain et al. to explain in detail exactly what would comprise this aspirational piece of legislative perfection that actually would be worthy of their respective votes?

Presumably, these senators are intelligent enough to comprehend that the Dumb-o-crats are all marching in unison behind the insane conceit of “Medicare for All,” the farcical and Kafkaesque proposal to replace the farcical and Kafkaesque conceit of Obamacare that was itself — only a few years back in 2009 — offered up with the usual breezy confidence and attendant inflated promises by the Dumbs as a Divine salve to cure all that was allegedly wrong with healthcare in America.

Will Collins and McCain and their cohorts offer specific details as to what magical bill would win their votes? They can’t, because their postures are indefensible and represent so much self-serving grandstanding and naked self-aggrandizement. They are enshrining an awful piece of legislation as holy writ, and, worse than that, standing in the way of cleaning up this stinking turd of statist, apparatchik “benevolence.” These senators who are obstructing efforts at reining in Obamacare’s worst excesses and traits deserve the harshest condemnation possible.

It doesn’t matter if McCain is replaced by an AZ Senator who will vote no. There are plenty of Republican Senators who only voted yes because they were confident that McCain, Paul, Collins, and if necessary Murkowski would supply the no votes needed to kill Obamacare repeal. If that batting order changes then another one of these lying sacks of excrement will drop the mask, dispense with their show vote, and step up to the plate to vote no.

“Health care is a deeply personal, complex issue that affects every single one of us and one-sixth of the American economy. Sweeping reforms to our health care system and to Medicaid can’t be done well in a compressed time frame…”

That’s exactly what we have now; Obamacare is the most sweeping reform imaginable short of single payer ever inflicted on our health care system, hastily thrown together in a compressed period of time and in secret no less. Moreover, why are these fools complaining about a compressed time frame? Obama signed this crap sandwich into law in March 2010. These Republicans clearly think we’re stupid. They had over seven years to work on a replacement. Clearly they fully expected Obama to win a second term and then ultimately be replaced by another Democrat. So all they ever planned on was to fund-raise on the fact they would keep sending meaningless repeal bills to Democrats who would veto them forever.

When Trump was elected I bet they all sh*t their pants. “Holy crap,” they said to each other with dread in their eyes, “This guy will actually sign a repeal bill.”

So the only reason she’s complaining about a compressed time frame is the whole GOP caucus has been exposed as liars (with few exceptions).

Collins’ diarrhea of the mouth is only exceeded for stupidity by McCain’s. McCain claimed to be leading the charge to repeal Obamacare before his home audience. Now he’s leading the charge to keep moving the goal posts in order to claim his “conscience” demands he keeps killing repeal. His latest whopper is that if the GOP passes a one-party health care bill to replace Obamacare then the GOP health care law will be as temporary as the Democrats’ partisan one-party bill.

That’s laugh out loud funny. First of all there is clearly nothing temporary about Obamacare. The second reason explains why it’s permanent. With the Senate Republicans providing the necessary votes to keep Obamacare in place it is now bipartisan.

The problem here is control by the GOP leadership over most of their congressmen and senators, through the party supplying the money and organization to get them elected, and re-elected.

The solution is to elect candidates in primary elections who are not supported by the party organization — and more likely to be guided by what their voters want, or what is good for the country, rather than following the orders of the party leadership and instituting policies bought by the major contributors to the party establishment.

When I lived in Orange-face Boehner’s district I voted for the Tea Party type Republican who ran against him in the primary. The guy’s campaign was headquartered in his garage. Boehner’s biggest contributors to his campaign were Boeing, Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems. How is an incumbent working out of his garage supposed to compete with companies like that?

Going back to having Senators chosen from their own state legislatures would certainly help the problem. But it still wouldn’t go away.

It isn’t easy, or always possible, but it can be done. Eric Cantor is an example — Dave Brat and his supporters walked the streets, knocked on doors, talked to everyone they could, and dumped the number two Republican in the House. It’s largely a matter of informing people, and getting them to understand that the party organization is their enemy — the party responds to the money that funds the party establishment, and doesn’t give a damn what voters want, if it conflicts with what their donors want. Ted Cruz, Mike Lee and Rand Paul all got elected to the Senate running against party-approved candidates. They already had public recognition and some degree of financial backing, which certainly helped, but still they fought the party organization and won. Brat, and several others, have done it with nothing but hard work and perseverance.

Repealing the 17th Amendment (and granting state legislatures the right of recall, in the process) would totally change government and the Senate from what they are today. Senators were intended to represent their state governments to keep the feds from usurping all the rights and powers of the states. Under today’s system, they are responsible to no one, other than the party organizations and donors who get them elected. What they support,or oppose would be entirely different if they were once again responsible to their state governments.

What’s wrong with Maine? The people there don’t seem particularly stupid, but they send a never-ending stream of idiots to Washington. You’d think they would elect a good one once in a while, if only by accident, but I can’t remember one.

Did anyone really think she was considering repealing Obamacare? Collins just pretends to be weighing things and then has a spotlight interview where she lectures why nothing but Obamacare is good for the country. Repeal is dead until there is a 6+ cushion after the 2018 elections. By then the dumpster fire that is Obamacare with be death to many of the 10 Democrats in Red states.

Did anyone really think she was considering repealing Obamacare? Collins just pretends to be weighing things and then has a spotlight interview where she lectures why nothing but Obamacare is good for the country. Repeal is dead until there is a 6+ cushion after the 2018 elections. By then the dumpster fire that is Obamacare with be death to many of the 10 Democrats in Red states…

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